loving and attentive mother, in this case, would certainly prove more
prejudicial than useful to her nursling. So, for this difficult task
that she cannot perform, there is advantageously substituted for her
what is known as an artificial mother. This apparatus, which is
identical with the one employed for the incubation of chickens,
consists of a large square box, supporting, upon a double bottom, a
series of bowls of warm water. Above these vessels, which are renewed
as soon as the temperature lowers, is arranged a basket filled with
cotton, and in this is laid, as in a nest, the weak creature which
could not exist in the open air.

[Illustration: STILL BIRTH WARMING APPARATUS.]

Through the glass in the cover, the mother has every opportunity of
watching the growth of her new born babe; but this is all that she is
allowed to do. The feeding of the infant, which is regulated by the
physician at regular hours, is effected by means of a special rubber
apparatus, through the aid of an intelligent woman who has sole charge
of this essential operation. The aeration of the little being, which
is no less important, is assured by a free circulation, in the box, of
pure warm air, which is kept at a definite temperature and is
constantly renewed through a draught flue. The least variations in the
temperature are easily seen through a horizontal thermometer placed
beneath the glass.

Thus protected against all those bad influences that are often so
fatal at the inception of life, even to the healthiest babes,
preserved from an excess or insufficiency of food, sheltered from cold
and dampness, protected against clumsy handling and against pernicious
microbes, sickly or prematurely born babies soon acquire enough